Congratulations Ruka, your great deal also says that either the seller is taking a big loss - which I doubt, or the true cost of the PRS-300 is less than we think.
He may not be making as much profit as he would like, but he can't stay in business selling below cost.
Maybe Sony has room to drop the MSRP for all of the readers. Especially since Amazon just dropped the price of the Kindle 2.
If we, the consumers, get really lucky there will be a price war. Who would win? The multinational electronics corporation, or the mega e-tailler.

Total for it would indeed be $137.49 with shipping if you won it. But below the $127.50 top bid, it says "Reserve not met." So nobody won that auction.

Looking at other closed auctions from that seller, the minimum reserve price is $165.

He made me a "second offer", which a seller may do when his auction either 1) doesn't sell for the reserve, or 2) the high bidder can't pay. I was able to purchase it for 137.49, because I was the high bidder. I must admit, that I was surprised that he sent me the offer. Perhaps he was clearing stock for some reason.

He made me a "second offer", which a seller may do when his auction either 1) doesn't sell for the reserve, or 2) the high bidder can't pay. I was able to purchase it for 137.49, because I was the high bidder. I must admit, that I was surprised that he sent me the offer. Perhaps he was clearing stock for some reason.

Please be extremely cautious with "second offers" as the majority of them are scams - people see who the highest bidders were on big ticket items and then send them spoofed emails dressed up to look like second offer. You need to ensure that the "email" is in your ebay account when you log in and the details of the sender match the details of the seller. Also you need to be very cautious if the seller asks for payment via western union. I had a friend who was very badly burned by this.

That's certainly very good advice. I don't think I would say the "majority" are scams - I've made some second offers myself, when selling my videogame collection. Emails from any source that involves your money should be verified by visiting the website, and not by clicking the link in the email.

Take a chill pill, dude. Really. Feuds and fist fights? FWIW, I am trained as both a scientist and lawyer--I know (after extensive personal investigation) what is debatable, what is open to various views, and what is simply unbiased observation.

For what it's worth, I agree with you about the 300 having better overall clarity than the 505. But even a dumb flyboy like myself knows that the scientific method forbids any notion of an unbiased observation (Samuel George Morton's infamous skull-packing experiment is the go-to cautionary tale there), and also that the US legal system places such little faith in the concept that the slightest potential conflict of interest is enough to make even the most trustworthy witnesses testimony inadmissible...

I really wanted to wait for the Daily Edition, not only because I couldn't imagine reading text on anything smaller, but also because I want to read PDF files too. The only portable device I have ever tried for ebooks before was a PDA (Ipaq) I had which had display large enough to only show few lines of text. That made it basically unusable for me.

But I was in BestBuy few days ago and they had PRS-300 in stock, so I convinced them to unpack one. First, I was really surprised how large it was -- there is no way I could put that into any of my pockets. But the screen looked really good. I also noticed they had in stock the folder with light for the PRS-300 that was shown on SonyStyle, so I had them open one of them and install the reader into it. The combination looked really great and it was very comfortable to hold. I noticed that having the light on produced glare on the reader, but since the light was flexible I was able to position it in a way that would avoid the problem. But that made me think about the glare on the touchscreen readers people talk about -- if I was bothered by the glare of PRS-300 I suspect I would be less than happy with the touchscreen. Unfortunately the store didn't have any of the touchscreens for me to compare.

So I bought the 300 model and the case-with-light with a plan to buy the Daily Edition or another large-screen reader after the reviews are in. I'll end up with two readers, but I think each will have its use.

After using the PRS-300 for few days (ePub books only, no PDF) I am really happy I bought it. The size is perfect just to take with me anywhere. It will not fit in my pocket, but is still small and light enough to put into a bag without much thought.

There are only three type sizes and the small is most of the time unusable to me even with glasses. But the medium size works beautifully.

An important test for me was to be able to use the 300 when reading in bed because I can't fall asleep without a book. :-) The reader worked beautifully -- I actually like it much more than printed book for bedside reading. It is lighter and easier to handle than hard-cover and pressing a button to turn the page is to me faster and less intrusive than turning a paperback page.

I think I am able to even read faster because my eyes can stay focused on a relatively small reading area and don't need to move the way they move with printed book (from left page top to bottom, right page, etc.). With the reader, it is the text that moves when you "turn the page" not your eyes.

I don't need the wireless functionality since there is no book I have to purchase or download immediately -- I have no problem doing that with a computer. But I can see myself using the device to read news, so if Sony releases constantly updated news-feeds, I would probably make use of the wireless.

The big plus is that I can finally minimize purchases of print books. I love having my large library of books, but I hate how much space they take. Ebooks solve this problem nicely.

Quicksand, the quoted text I've highlighted in bold describes my experience (so far) with the PRS-300 perfectly. Minus the part about not being able to sleep without a book!

It is much more comfortable to read in bed with an e-reader than with a traditional book. I find you don't always have to shift around so much to find a comfortable position for reading.

I've had my 600 for a week and have read 4 complete novels plus 2 half-read books on it. This is far more than I would normally read with "treebooks" as I'd normally get through an average of 2 of those per week. It's simply much easier to pick up and put down (especially when reading more than 1 book at a time) and you don't have to worry about where you got up to as the reader does that all for you.

I spent a long time deciding between a 300, 600 or a kindle. I wasn't comfortable with importing a kindle from the US to the UK in case something went horribly wrong - be just my luck. And I thought the 300 screen might be a little too small with the amount of reading I do. So I think I made a good choice, although (being so impressed with the sony) I'm very tempted to also buy the 300 for holidays and travels ...

I don't think the 600 is 100% perfect but I'm not convinced that any ereader currently can claim that. I think it's just a case of trying to work out which one will suit you and your reading needs best.

My husband was interested in an ereader but wants one for reading technical pdfs and in colour - but I think he'd be better off not with an ereader but with a netbook for that from what I've read on this forum.

That's certainly very good advice. I don't think I would say the "majority" are scams - I've made some second offers myself, when selling my videogame collection. Emails from any source that involves your money should be verified by visiting the website, and not by clicking the link in the email.

I'm curious, Ruka, if you are still around-- did you get a reader, or get ripped off?

When I was shopping for an e-reader I wish I'd bothered to look for this review. Fortunately I picked up the PRS-600 and never looked back.

Funny thing though: as soon as I decided on buying it, I did so, knowing full well that as soon as something better came along (like the rumoured Apple tablet), I'd would plunk my money down for that and switch over.

It's a geek thing, I think. What the heck. Some people play the horses, other smoke like chimneys, while still others drink until dawn......

I'm curious, Ruka, if you are still around-- did you get a reader, or get ripped off?

I got one, and I love it, especially once I disabled the driver that auto-launches the Sony installer software.

The only slight disappointment with the process is that they posted a generic picture of a blue one, and I received a silver. (They didn't mention color in the description, so I knew this was a risk.) I like the silver one a lot more than I thought I would though.

Oh! I was surprised to learn that I can indeed slip the reader into my front jeans pocket as some posters claimed, when it's in it's sleeve. I don't think I'll be able to manage it when keeping it in a case. (I'm still looking for an ideal case.)